Rosetta is a translation process that allows users to run apps that contain x86_64 instructions on Apple silicon.Steam is an incredibly popular and widely-used video game library developed by Valve from where you can download and play thousands upon thousands of gaming titles (both free and paid). But that’s still years away, as Apple is just at the beginning of the process of bringing Apple Silicon to the Mac hardware lineup. Over time, more and more Mac apps will run natively on Apple Silicon, and Rosetta 2 will eventually become unneeded, in much the same way that Rosetta for PowerPC eventually became deprecated. Or maybe you’re familiar with the Rosetta Stone language learning software, or even the original Rosetta Stone Egyptian tablet… but anyway, for our purposes here it allows new Apple Silicon Macs to run older apps that are not yet native. You can read more about the Rosetta 2 translation environment at the Apple developer site gif interested.Īnd if the name Rosetta sounds familiar to you, it’s likely because Apple used the same name for a similar translation process when Apple moved from PowerPC (PPC) to Intel architecture, support for which was later dropped in Lion. Rosetta 2 translates Intel x86 code to ARM so that it can run on the new Apple Silicon hardware. usr/sbin/softwareupdate -install-rosetta -agree-to-licenseįor some quick background, new Apple Silicon Macs run on different architecture, whereas Macs have been running Intel chips for quite some time. You can also skip the license agreement by providing an additional flag: This will launch the rosetta installer and you’ll have to agree to a license agreement, which I’m sure you’ll read completely and thoroughly as we all do every time we install anything on every device.

How to Install Rosetta 2 via Command Line on Apple Silicon MacĪnother way to install Rosetta 2 on the Mac is by using the familiar softwareupdate command line tool. Clicking “Install” will then install the Rosetta 2 software onto the Mac. If you have any x86 Intel apps available on the Apple Silicon Mac, simply launching the app will prompt the user to install Rosetta. Also, this capability is only available in macOS Big Sur or later. Remember, this is only for Apple Silicon ARM Macs, and this is not necessary on any Intel Mac (nor would Rosetta 2 install on Intel Macs anyway). You can use whichever method you’d like, as both will have the same end result of Rosetta 2 being installed onto the Mac. There are two ways to install Rosetta 2 onto an Apple Silicon Mac using the Terminal, or by attempting to open a non-native x86 app which prompts an installer.

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